[Deck] Death and Taxes

Played today at the Hadley tournament.... 8 players (frowntown) but prizes were kept the same and I faced some strong decks and for general playing purposes I felt good about the deck. 3 rounds of swiss and then cut to top 4. I went 4-1 taking 2nd winning a Mox Diamond and a Foil Memory Jar-not legacy playable, but it will cash out on Ebay well enough ;)

Here is the list:
/ Lands
11 Plains
4 Karakas
3 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port

// Creatures
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Mother of Runes
4 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Mangara of Corondor
3 Burrenton Forge-tender

// Spells
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 AEther Vial
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Swords to Plowshares

SB:
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Orim's Chant
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Runed Halo
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Relic of Progenitus

Round 1> Scott(VstheWorld) Playing reanimator

G1:He thoughtsiezes me turn 1 and takes a sword of light and shadow from my hand. He goes into turn 2 entomb for Empyrial Archangel, since he is banking on me running Karakas. He turn 3 reanimates and gets there since that puppy has shroud.

G2: I play land go, he plays turn 1 thoughtsieze, I e. tutor in response fetching relic, he takes a flilckerwisp from my hand with sieze, I stick relic on my turn, he doesnt have any discard spells apparently and reanimates my flickerwisp, I play one from my hand on my turn, taking the flickerwisp he had out of the game just to get it back on my side at EOT. I get there for 6 in the air since he doesnt get any gas.

G3: Turn 1 thoughtsieze for him again, and takes the tutor I have in my hand away from me.. I play turn 1 mother of runes. He plays a land and passes. I draw wheel of sun and moon and play it, in respose he entombs for inkwell leviathan(crap, shroud bastard), but at least I can block him. I get an avenger in play and sit back and block, keep avenger alive with mother or runes, and then fly over for my attack phase, this goes on for a few turns and I end up winning since my guys have wings!!

Round 2: Justin (sunshine-teammate{frown} ) with ugw faeries

G1: we both get turn 1 vial. he lands a goyf, which gets stp'd early. Then he plays another, I attempt to use another stp, which he forces, I draw for my turn and get guess what... an stp, I play it, he comments on my lucksacking ability =P, he loses goyf to it... he ends up scooping to active vial, karakas, mangara.. hotness

G2: Early mother of runes and a runed halo on goyf and avenger beating for 3 in the air ends this game quick...

Round 3: Alex with New Horizons

G1: I get my board wiped early with a EE. I get him down to 8 life before he is able to overpower me with goyf and Kotr

G2: Early mother of runes x2 and some fliers get it done. I took some beats in the meantime, he QUADRUPLE dazed my jitte when I tried to play it (he had drawn 4 in a row).

G3: SOLS gets me to 35 life before he gets rid of it... I pull this one out with fliers and some well aimed Mangara activations.

TOP 4 ROUND 1: Kyle(teammate again) with ANT (NOTE: I have faced Kyle two other times in tournament play and lost to his combo decks, this is my story of VICTORY!)

G1: Yeah..... I lose this one to turn 2 nauseam, blah blah blah

G2: Turn 1 I have chant in hand and get turn 2 canonist. I am able to keep him at bay for an avenger weilding a jitte to get it done.

G3. I have Chant and wheel in my hand, he gets a slow start and I go land, pass, vial pass, wheel(he had tutored for Ill gotten gains the turn before). He goes to mystical on his upkeep, I chant him in response, which halts him for the turn. I get vial to 2 counters and draw canonist. I decide to keep him back in my hand for the opportune time to vial it in... I play avenger off lands, he takes a turn and doesnt do anything meaningful, I take my turn (keeping vial at 2) play grunt off lands and fly with avenger. He plays a bunch of artifacts and then goes to look at his top 3 with top, I choose to vial in canonist here... he looks with top, taps it to draw and then I think he messed up in his thinking since he plays infernal tutor which screws him with canonist in play... He thinks for a few minutes..... then scoops.. YEEEEHHHAAAAWWWWWW

Finals: Against Alex with new horizons again:

He wins in two... Both games are a battle, with him at 4 life at the end of game 1 and 8 at the end of game 2... Halo was useful, EE is a bitch, and If I had ran a few retribution of the meek(or even harriers over BFT"S) this should have been my day.....

I wasnt sure what to expect for decks here, in theory, BFT is a reasonable choice, but at this tournament, harrier would have served me better... Also, the mindbreak traps are good, but I think I will drop them for some retribution of the meek.. EE is good against a meta with belcher, it may come back in sometime, but that will likely just become chant #4...

I was also disappointed with BFT. In a lot of matchups, I think Harrier would have been more useful. I'm also considering just not using the toolbox side for budget/where-the-hell-do-I-get-Enlightened-Tutors reasons. I was considering 4x Silence, 3x Canonist, 3x Crypt, 1x Harrier/BFT, 1x Grunt, 3x Aura of silence.

i'm playing a similar sideboard, mine is made of
4x silence
3x canonist
3x wing shards (never cutting them again, they are just fun, the are so usefull against goblin, if they have warchief out, my opponent once lost 5 creatures to this)
3x relic of progenitus
2x flexible slot (true believer, runed halo, aura of silence, powder keg)

i do not think it has any use to play a singleton BFT/harrier in your sideboard, you do not want to mulligan for it, or would it be a harrier if you have him maindecked as well and BFT if he's the one in maindeck? sorry but i do not understand your thoughts here, i think 3 of either one maindeck should be enough, because they are in fact subpar creatures, the sideboard slots should be dedicadet to better cards for the different matchups

I feel that it's not really worth it as a 3-of MB. It was good in some matchups, but not in enough of them to be worth MBing.

As for my SB:
4x Silence
3x Canonist
3x Tormod's Cryp/Relic of Progenitus
3x Aura of Silence (might switch out in favor of something else)
1x Jötun Grunt
1x something. Harrier, BFT etc. Something that's not worth it in all matchups, but is in the MB in some quantity.

I know I have not been speaking much in this thread recently, but I still play the deck. Considering how useful stuff like BFT and Children of Korlis are simply because they come out turn 1, I think you guys really need to have one of those two in you sb at least. I am occasionally unhappy with BFT, but I really want them against Zoo, Gobs, and Dredge. A guy that is sb tech against hose three has got to stick around in your 75 somewhere.

after coming close to losing to shroud creatures, and not having enough removal to deal with some big trample creatures (terravore), I am considering running a basilisk collar in my list along with the fourth mystic. Collar saves from shroud creatures like empyrial archangel, and hoses anything we can block. The lifelink is definitely nifty as well... The 4th mystic may not be needed, but searching for the right equip earlier seems reasonable especially since I will be running 4 targets. To my last list

-3 BFT
-1 Grunt (will see how this affects some matchups, may just go back in instead of mystic #4)
+2 Goldmeadow Harrier
+1 Basilisk Collar
+1 Stoneforge Mystic

the problem I see with Basilisk Collar is that it usually asks that you also run First Strike creatures to allow you to be able to kill creatures before they deal damage to your creatures. And unfortunately this deck tends not to run any first strikers that I am aware of.

Try Wing Shards in the sb. It has a lot of uses including all the ones you seek here. Oh, and Basilisk Collar sucks.

When I tested Collar. I found it's an ok niche card. It's good when used with Mom, and against Empyrial Archangel. It's also something you can get when you have another equip out so you can use the lifegain to stabilize. It's main functionality is with Mother of runes though, which is what I'd use it with.

To be fair I may just be a lunatic. But I found it handy in some matchups. As for Wingshards, I should try it in the SB instead of Aura of Silence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finn

Try Wing Shards in the sb. It has a lot of uses including all the ones you seek here. Oh, and Basilisk Collar sucks.

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Ive tried wing shards and the casting cost is rough to get sometimes. I may give them another run, but me losing one creature to block carrying a collar to kill a beefy creature is worth the loss IMO. Against reanimator, they wont need to play another spell if they have an attacker, so wing shards will likely just get countered. The same goes for new horizons, they will just plat a terravore, and continue to beat with it, why waste spells if that one creature is going to get you there

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finn

Try Wing Shards in the sb. It has a lot of uses including all the ones you seek here. Oh, and Basilisk Collar sucks.

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I usually agree with ya Finn, but I have found Collar to useful whenever I face other decks quicker than D+T.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joe_C

Ive tried wing shards and the casting cost is rough to get sometimes. I may give them another run, but me losing one creature to block carrying a collar to kill a beefy creature is worth the loss IMO. Against reanimator, they wont need to play another spell if they have an attacker, so wing shards will likely just get countered. The same goes for new horizons, they will just plat a terravore, and continue to beat with it, why waste spells if that one creature is going to get you there

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I played Zoo yesterday against Supachai and he beat the shit out of me with Wing Shards. The trick is knowing when to cast it. Sometimes they will try to QPM your equipment and then attack, in which case you can respond with Wing Shards and 2 for 1 them (which is decent for 1WW). Its also 'virtually' uncounterable if you have enough copies (storm).
You can make better use of it if you already have Vial in play. Then you can vial in blocker in response which eat removal, which feeds the storm count.

I'm a bit iffy on Wing Shards. With 3 Mishra's Factories and 4 Wastelands, I've had multiple games where I've only had one colored source or only 2 lands.

Has anyone tried Seal of Cleansing as an artifact/enchantment removal? While Aura of silence is better against enchantress/affinity, CMC 3 seems a bit slow in these matchups.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Penguinizer

I'm a bit iffy on Wing Shards. With 3 Mishra's Factories and 4 Wastelands, I've had multiple games where I've only had one colored source or only 2 lands.

Has anyone tried Seal of Cleansing as an artifact/enchantment removal? While Aura of silence is better against enchantress/affinity, CMC 3 seems a bit slow in these matchups.

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If you are looking for a good 2cc card run serenity. Against enchantress if they have streling grove, your only target is grove, and if they have 2 you are screwed. Serenity is a turn slow, but it can just win you the game against affinity and enchantress if you land it at the right time.....

I copied this post from over at Salvation and decided to post it here because this forum gets more Legacy traffic and maybe it will be more helpful. I've been a forum member for two years but never posted:

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I just played this deck in a 25 person legacy tournament at my shop today. Now, this was only my second ever legacy tournament and my first time playing DnT even though I've had the deck for almost two years. Now, I went with a duplicate of the list (Finn's) in the first post with an unknown meta.

$25 entry, prizes were:

1: 4 goyfs
2: 4 diamonds
3-4: 2 wastelands
5-8: 1 LED

5 rounds of swiss, deck reg, and cut to top 8.

R1

I am playing my friend and he's running a homebrew which is a combination of aggro loam and 43lands.dec. He's playing all the utility lands, plowshares, intuition, and aggro loam cards like goyf. G1 he couldn't draw any lands despite having like 28 in the maindeck and I beat him with tempo. G2 he drew lands and had 3x Swords in the first 5 turns to deal with my guys. G3 we went to time and he probably would have won with 10 more minutes because he was just starting to stabilize.

(0-0-1)

R2

I watched my opponent play his last match by chance so I know he's playing Enchantress. Go figure the SB in the first post doesn't have a great matchup against Enchantress. Where was Cataclysm when you need it. G1 he cast Argothian Enchantress (deck is dead against it) and played a TON of enchantments and it took awhile but he killed me with Sigil. G2 I sided in the Tutor package for Canonist and Chants. I knew the deck is pretty cold to Canonist. I kept a starting hand including MOM and Canonist. I played MOM on one, Canonist on two, and his outs to Canonist were dead to MOM. I beat him very fast with the aggro plan. G3 I kept a two land hand with tutor for Canonist on t1, and he had his O-ring on 3. If I would have drawn a third land by T4 I would have had triple O-ring in my hand to win, but I couldn't rip the third land. He played the enchantment that lets him draw on his T4. I didn't rip a third land til about T7 and by then he had Sigil in play and my hand was worthless. Lost with about 5 mins on the clock.

(0-1-1)

R3

I also watched this guy play after I lost and knew he was playing some sort of Bant, but I didn't know the deck. I figured out later it's the new deck called 'New Horizions' or something. It has Terravore, Reliquary, and Goyf with blue for counter/draw and white for Swords. G1 he couldn't draw lands I just ported him and G2 he couldn't do anything about fliers or an active MOM. This matchup wasn't that bad, though he did whiff on about 5 Ponders. I sided in the Wing Shards for him G2 but didn't even need to use them. Jotun Grunt was the HOUSE this matchup. I didn't know the deck at the time, so I thought he was playing NO/Progenitus so I was playing around it.

(1-1-1)

R4

I didn't know what I was going up against, but after he played a swamp on T1 I knew it was the homebrew mono-b with planeswalkers. G1 I played a SoLaS on T3 and he was stone dead to it. He had Gatekeeper (sick in this meta) x2 and Damnation but it wasn't enough when I had vial to keep getting guys back with SoLaS. G2 he had Hymn on T3 and T4 and no deck comes back from that...he did take about 20 mins to beat me and I saw a whole ton of odd card choices, such as Staff of Domination, Liliana Vess, and Consume Spirit off of Cabal Coffers. I had a SoLaS I tutored for but with no creatures out it didn't do anything. I didn't have a SB for him, I just had to hope that he didn't have double Hymn game 3. I played a Jitte on 2, ported his lands, and put it on a Flickerwisp I vialed in later. He had no mana, as I was keeping him on 3 lands and thought he was holding Damnation, but turns out he wasn't. I got Jitte to 4 counters and we punched in the last 11 dmg for the win, and he showed me a hand of two planeswalkers and 3x Extirpate. Not sure why he thought that card would be good against me, but I digress.

(2-1-1)

R5

At this point I start to get excited, because I looked at the standings, and even though I have the worst breakers at 7 pts, the top 6 people draw in and there are only four people left with over 7 points and I can win and get in.

The guy I get paired up to I had happened to see his previous match (I wasn't purposely scouting and it was just on chance) so I knew he was playing Countertop Bant. I knew this would be a desperate matchup, because Pridgemage RUINS the deck. G1 I gambled Swords on his T1 Hierarch and it paid off (though I thought it was dumb at the time) because he was stuck on 2 lands with no white for at least 5 turns. He did play a T2 and T3 Goyf, but my eventual Jotun Grunt and MOM held him down. By the time he got lands I was beating him in the air and he died too fast. G2 he had top on one, balance on 2, and there was nothing I could do. I thought an O-ring on my T3 would be ok, but I underestimated how many 3 drops the deck plays and he flipped over a Knight (also plays Grip!). I scooped pretty quick. Forgot to mention, but we sided into the typical anti Goyf plan (tutor package, extra grunt, wheel, and relic). G3 started off so rancid, a one wasteland hand mulled to a 6 card no land hand. My 5 was 3 land, mangara, irrelevant card. I thought I was doomed, especially when he played Balance on 2 and Top on 3. I managed to stick Mangara (without Karakas, he was playing Karakas main and it wasted mine). I should have immediately killed the balance, but I punted and lost my SoFaI into it before realizing I should just remove it. Then we proceded to topdeck SICK. Literally it was creature after creature after removal when I needed it. Somehow I managed to get a Grunt on the Table (with his graveyard full of lands) with an active MOM against his 2x Knights. As I ate away his lands he just kept filling the yard with them and after Grunt got to 2 counters I put a Flickerwisp out there blinking Grunt to reset him (couldn't live through 3 age counters). Then I topdecked O-ring like a champ (take out one of his Knights so I wouldn't die on the swingback in two turns), so that I could punch through and to get him to 4 with MOM/Grunt/Wisp. He played Jace 2.0 and punted by returning my MOM to my hand instead of one of the either two. He kept his Knight on D (and attacked with his goyf, misplay again) and I topdecked Swords like a champ, swords his guy, and did him 7 for lethal. I couldn't believe I managed to win it, got extremely lucky. That matchup is definitely not in our favor.

(3-1-1)

Top 8

I am paired against my friend, and even though I saw him playing in the earlier rounds I couldn't remember what he was playing. When he played Mountain on T1 I remembered it was Imperial Painter. Yikes! G1 he managed to get painter and kill my lands with Volcanoes/REBs/Pyroblasts until he got Grindstone. I sided in the tech, wheel, double halo, and the tutor package. G2 he played Painter off of Recruiter but I had double Swords, which is tech against him. I managed to play a ton of creatures and he literally couldn't find any Painters. The game was over fast. G3 he mulled to 6 and ended up keeping an extremely risky hand of just ONE City of Traitors. He passed the turn without a land drop and I went Vial (had wheel and two enlightened tutors in my hand). He groaned as he didn't draw a land or chrome mox and played his City and Painter. I played wheel and passed. He played Grindstone and I tutored and played Halo. He played another Painter and still didn't hit any mana, and then I played Avenger. I attacked with the Avenger and it his Pyrokenesis, but he had to sac a Volcano. I then played a second halo and put out a Stoneforge. He passed and I played flickerwisp just to get a 3/1 on the table. He was hitting me with the Painters the whole time to about 12 life. I attacked and he had another Kenesis removing REB to 2-1 me (I stupidly attacked with Mystic into his Painter, forget why). He was out of cards and couldn't actually deal with my enchantments. I kept playing creatures and he then couldn't attack (2x Avenger). He played Jaya Ballard and killed a guy with it, but I had the Mangara to remove it next turn (no Karakas). He died shortly after that.

(4-1-1)

Top 4

The split was offered at $145 store credit (which is equivalent to $ for me since I draft every week) each (Goyf, Wasteland, Diamond) and since it was pretty much the same price as second place, everyone wanted to split. I waited to hear parings because I could outplay two of the players, but I got stuck against the Zoo matchup against an unknown. I decided that matchup wasn't in my favor and split.

I was pretty excited at how well I did in my first real tournament since having the deck built forever. Everyone was real surprised I made it that far as well. MVPs of the day were Jotun Grunt and Mother of Runes. Jotun Grunt was pretty much the only reason I bet the Goyf based decks. The only card I was VERY upset with and sided out every match were the Forge-Tenders. Turns out there was no Dredge deck and only one Goblin deck that was playing. I wished they were Harriers every time and will be making the switch for GP Columbus. The Tutor package is so versatile it's insane. The only problem I have is deciding what to side out for all those cards! I really should prepare more and make a checklist before GP Columbus.

congratulations on your finish, seemed to be quite a funny tournament

i was wundering why you chose forge tenders over harriers for your list in this tournament, didn't you know what meta it was, or were the pairings not in your favor (forge tenders favor)?

SolonJhee, I don't usually side in the tutor package against aggro-control decks like Bant. I like the idea of siding in just the Wheel and the Relic against that new Horizons one because it is very GY dependent, but not the Tutors. I would only side those in against combo and combo-like decks that sacrifice card economy for speed. The hosers that you fetch with tutors just aren't that potent against aggro-control, and you don't want to give up a draw for them. Besides, these decks have to try to outmaneuver you and they typically can't.

Heh. I'm impressed that you picked up even one game against Enchantress. Canonist and Mother of Runes is about the only plan you have in that one. Very cool.

Also, I really recommend figuring out your sideboarding plan against every opponent you expect to face before you attend Columbus. I think you are right about that.

Finally, Harrier vs. Forge-Tender is entirely a question of which opponents you face. I acknowledge that it is nearly dead in a bunch of matchups. The only reason I like Forge-Tenders is because it is at its best against some of the toughest opponents. Always a tough call.

Never mind, please remove

I am interested in why I keep seeing Stillmoon Cavalier in the MTGO decklists. On paper, the card looks good but only against one matchup. Otherwise the card is a late 3 drop answer that dies to artifact removal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Salogy

I am interested in why I keep seeing Stillmoon Cavalier in the MTGO decklists. On paper, the card looks good but only against one matchup. Otherwise the card is a late 3 drop answer that dies to artifact removal.

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Stilllmoon is also good vs any deck with StP and no bolts, outside of a sac,minus or red effects , he isnt going anywhere. He can block Iona,Sphinx of the Steel,RWM,Stalker,Pridemage and KotR. I see it as a awesome meta main deck inclusion when you expect to see 4-5 other DnT decks in a 20 man field. I have seen Stillmoon used a lot during std season where BW tokens was a deck to beat, TUS actually ran it into like a dozen finishes over the course of 2 weeks and claimed it was almost all on the back of Stillmoon on mirrors.